Dawn Staley Dishes On Magnitude Of Tomorrow's Game, Challenge Of Facing Caitlin Clark

Andrew Lyon | Apr 6, 2024

South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley speaks to the media on the eve of the NCAA Women's Basketball National Championship Game / Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register / USA

For seemingly each of the past two rounds of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, the television network executives, and fans for that matter, have gotten to witness several dream matchups, including a rematch of last year's championship game between Iowa and LSU, Paige Bueckers of UConn versus Juju Watkins of Southern Cal' and then Iowa's Caitlin Clark in the Final Four. Another historic matchup is on the horizon as Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks gear up for a national championship game that'll see them take on the Iowa Hawkeyes for the second tournament in a row.

Either one of two historic moments will take place on Sunday afternoon: South Carolina will become just the fifth program in the sport's history and first team since the 2016 UConn Huskies to finish the season undefeated, or Caitlin Clark will capture a national title and immediately vault herself onto the Mount Rushmore of the women's college basketball. No matter what happens, Staley understands the moment her team will partake in tomorrow and the challenges that Clark presents.

"I think it's great. I think it's, you know, it's a monumental game for our game, and we're very fortunate to be a part of it. We get to witness firsthand the legacy of Caitlin Clark. You know, it's you watch her, you prep for her, you can't you can't help but to really love how she dissects the game. How do you defend fundamental [offensive] basketball with fundamental defense ?You can't. She's going to win every time. So I mean, you got to show her different looks in order for her to not settle in and [pick] you apart. But we also have to play our side of the ball. We got to defend; we got to put some points on the scoreboard," Dawn lamented. "I hope it's the most watched game [of the season]. I mean, we've been a part of witnessing from the outside looking in to the most watched game. It's going to be fun to hopefully be a part of it. And I hope that everybody gets exactly what they want out of it. And I just hope the viewers, the people in attendance, will take tomorrow's moment and carry it [through] the rest of the history of our sport, and hopefully, we can keep the eyeballs and demand where it needs to be."

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